Can't get them to breed!!!!!

[jak2002003]

I am having problems with my king pigeons. I can't get them to raise any chicks!

I started with one 'pair', but they turned out to be 2 females. They made nests and had eggs and brooded them, but - obviously - no chicks.

I finally found a male for sale months later. However, he is not interested in pairing up with either of the females, or any of my other female pigeons.

They will beat him up and chase him away. I can't get the females to split up their pair - even though they are now in different cages.

The male is always afraid of the females. I have had him 2 months now. I have never seem him cooing or trying to make with the other pigeons. He is so placid and he is at the bottom of the pecking order. He is even frightened of my tiny fantail dove female!

He is healthy, eating well and shows no signs of being sick. He is a good weight and mature.

I feel like I am never going to get any baby king pigeons!!!

Any pigeon breeder got any tips to 'get him in the mood'?

 

[Hokum Coco]

I have got a pair of lesbian homers who act the same way. I use them for foster parents to date. I hope you have better luck than I Jak20020003. I am thinking of trading one for a male homer. I can not seem to break their bond either.

 

[laughingdog]

I have got a pair of lesbian homers who act the same way. I use them for foster parents to date. I hope you have better luck than I Jak20020003. I am thinking of trading one for a male homer. I can not seem to break their bond either.

somewhat same problem except my females will mate up with males but then go back together, confusing me at first when id get two pairs of fertile eggs that i watched being laid at times..

 

[jak2002003]

somewhat same problem except my females will mate up with males but then go back together, confusing me at first when id get two pairs of fertile eggs that i watched being laid at times..

That's interesting. Could the female pair raise 4 eggs together - and did the male help?

My female pair is super aggressive to all the other pigeons. I don't blame the male for not 'falling in love' with one of them. They don't have a very nice personality - even grunting and bashing me with their wings - and they are so strong as they are very big birds!

I have put both birds in different cages out of sight of each other. I hope they will get less territorial about their breeding cage then. I have the male in the bigger breeding cage on his own so try to get him to accept it as his space.

I will give it a week and then add one of the females to him. I hope she will not attack him too bad. Last time she pulled lots of his feathers out of his head and he was bleeding!

If it does not work this time I will have to give up.

 

[Hokum Coco]

Sometimes males will not mate with your selected female because they are going through a mourning period after loosing a mate. Males will some times beat up females when put in their company (especially his same loft) because they are still have a bond with their previous mate. It may be your male is still caring a torch for another bird in his original loft and is still going through separation anxiety.

I have a buddy who owns one male that would not mate with any female that came near him for almost a year after loosing his mate.

I also have pigeons who I mated with different partners and even after raising a clutch of eggs to maturity would reunite with their original partners in a heart beat given half a chance. The reuniting is filled with happiness and passion that is clearly visible to a bird brain such as my self anyway.

I had a new female that only laid one egg. After a release the cock bird failed to return. I did not think the lone female could incubate and raise the eggs by her self. I took the egg and put it under another pair of birds who had laid the same day. I had that pair of homers raise 3 squabs with no problem.

I think 4 squabs would be a lot to ask of a pair of birds to raise. I might try it but I would be prepared to pick up the slack and hand feed if one squab was beginning to look under nourished.

On another note: My lesbian pair have excepted the two new squabs and every thing is going well.

Yet again on another topic I had a fully fledged squab die. God knows why! It was alive and seemed healthy in the morning when I went out to feed and water. In the afternoon it was as dead as a stone with no predator marks what so ever and still in it's nest bowl.

 

[jak2002003]

I am not sure I can go through separating the female pair. Its been a few days and they are going mental now. They spend all day frantically pacing back and forth and jumping up and down trying to get out of the cage to go back to their next box.

Each birds has her own cage, but they must be able to hear each other cooing.

I tried adding one female to the males cage this evening as rooting time. Well she was not happy and went straight to attacking him, slapping him with her wings and pecking and pulling out his feathers - the poor guy was running about trying to get away from her and he was getting very upset and panting a lot. I took out the female after a 5 minutes when it was clear she was not going to settle down. She grabbed my finger in her beak as I lifted her out and would not let go, also slapping my face with one of her wings. I got a long scratch down my arm now from her nails!

I think these king pigeons are much more aggressive than my other breeds. They are also VERY strong.

If she still won't tolerate the other bird tomorrow evening I will let her go back to her girlfriend and their empty nest, but I will be very upset I will not get to have any chicks from them. I will just have to concentrate on my old dutch capuchins, who are very eager to raise some chicks!

Here is a photo of me female 'pair' of kings.



And here is the male - I wanted some nice white youngsters from him. (behind him is my hand reared rescued feral - she is so small compared to my kings!)

 

[Hokum Coco]

Larry lofts or laughing dog may have some suggestions. I see it like this we either need a dominate males who could slap our birds in line; Get rid of one of the females and give the other time to get over their separation; or be content to use them as foster parents. For now I am content with the latter as I am at a shortage when it comes to cock birds. You could mate your cock king pigeon to your feral if you are so inclined.

I spoke too soon the lesbian pair are not good foster parents.
I put the squabs back with their original parents today.

Their crops were empty and they were looking weak.

I hope things do not backfire on me and I wind up loosing both squabs!.

 

[laughingdog]

my gay girl pair would raise four squeakers just fine, but after over month i take the babies out, as otherwise foster parents keep feeding and babies dont take too much effort to eat drink and try to fly on own so much, and got too fat as were stuffed so much the babies would be constantly pooping and crops were stretched to max like a balloon ready to pop, but females and male will keep trying to neurotically feed, making babies reguritate or food just run right out of mouths. mostly the two females were kept alone together cause the male would be tweaking as ran back and fourth from one nest to another confusing females. honestly i just used the two females together cause they will go right into parent mode for eggs and squeakers, were repairing was taking longer to get into mode of where they were expecting or ready to take care of babies maybe. these two females are crap crossing genetic product of start of composite breeding i was going to try to make much better combination but similar to fantasy pigeons, were the mother was a capuchine, and father was grouse footed sky cutter.

maybe try to pair your feral to boost your male king's confidence, and make sure he is mature enough to do his part even, as sounds more like a younger inexperianced male to me, but im not familiar with kings in general, nor do i know how fast they mature. prove him out to even a feral or homer hen first, then worry later if results are still unsatisfactory.

line breeding were you breed your male king, to a larger female homer you aquire, then keep breeding him to the female baby of each hen produced, while at same time breeding the males with each female non sister of past pairing with your original male. then if you have any fall backs from breeding you can cross the two lines you created to get a better closer king to your original male or standard your trying to produce. this should take eight generations at absolute max, and should work in three or four. most dont bother and just for us mad science types, or those who cannot find what they want. you could try putting females in side by side wire cages so they see each other so theyll be distracted by each other then let the male have a nest in opposite corner so he can slowly build up confidence and woo the female. had it work at times others females just ignore and run back and fourth to try to get to each other till worn out then add male. you could try flying the female till she is totally exuasted and wont fly anymore then add her to the male.

 

[larrylofts]

I WOULD PUT THE COCK IN A NEW PEN NOT THE OLD ONE AND INTRODUCE ONE OF THE HENS THERE AWAY FROM OLD TERRITORY ANOTHER WAY PUT THE COCK AND HEN IN SEPERATE PENS SIDE BY SIDE WERE THEY ONLY SEE EACH OTHER MIGHT TAKE AWHILE PUT THE HEN IN THE COCK PEN SO SHE DOES NOT CLAIM AS HERS SAME THING AS BREEDING RABBITS

 

[iamkingtim01]

I have the same issue with a rabbit that I rescued. A buddy of mine knows I have a soft heart for critters so he gave me a male gray fox rabbit that wasn't interested in females. We laugh about him being gay, but he gets along just fine with my quail and doves. I don't think he is interested in mating with them either and that's a good thing.